Category Archives: Architecture and Design

Post navigation

One of the coolest architectural concepts I have seen in a long time! Designed by DRMM, the house has a ‘roof sleeve’ (their term, not mine), which is moved by four electric motors. “Taking the roof off” only takes a few minutes – watch the video below to see how the mechanism works.

I generally try my best not to buy into any dogma, but there are certain moments in life, when it is nice to follow a clear set of supposedly authoritative rules. In those moments, I try to live by the answer to a very simple question: What Would George Clooney Do? I guess, if you like acronmys, you could refer to this as WWGCD? for short, but it doesn’t have much of a ring to it, and actually looks like it’s the abbreviation for something that is either related to technology or a professional female sports league. To get back to my point though, the question ‘What Would George Cloooney Do?’ provides infallible answers to some of the most difficult questions that modern society throws at you: Illy or Nespresso? Rolex or Omega? Bow tie or regular tie when wearing a tuxedo? Is it possible to age gracefully? Should you buy an electric car? Is it ok to grow a belly when you get old? Should we intervene in Darfur? What’s better: to get married and have kids or remain a bachelor for life? Of course, you may not always like the answer you get – I for example prefer Rolex to Omega – but looking at Mr. Clooney it’s pretty obvious that he gets it right most of the time. And I would submit to you that asking yourself what George would do in your position will almost always lead to much better outcomes (as long as you don’t try to apply the WWGCD dogma to solving moral dilemmeas or finding a way to bring about world peace – but in fairness all other dogmas have a tendency to fail on these accounts as well). So why am I telling you all this? It’s only partly to wax lyrical about George Clooney. Primarily, I am trying to set the stage for what I want to post today. And as hard as I tried, I could not come up with a better reason for liking this, than to point out that George Clooney owns the product in question. Today’s post is about a yacht. But not just any yacht; it’s the Riva Aquariva. And while you may find that this is a slightly silly name, the actual yacht itself is one of the prettiest yet least useful vessels ever to be launched. For the cost of some prime real estate in London, you get a lot of Mahogany, some leather, lots of chrome, and little else. No proper cabin, no pantry, no bathroom – not even a roof or any kind of protection against rain. You might think that the only thing more stupid than the name is the actual yacht itself. BUT as you can see below: George Clooney owns one. To me that’s good enough to want one as well – and if you think that’s shallow, do me a favour and just blame it on dogmatic worldviews in general!

I liked anamorphic typography before finding out what it actually is. Just sounds cool right? Ok, it doesn’t it sounds ridiculously pretentious. But I just like saying it. Or writing it. Anamorphic Typography. Beautiful! In all seriousness though, the concept behind the term is pretty spectacular. Basically, these are three-dimensional typographical installations which – according to the artist Joseph Egan – challenge the notion “that graphic design can only be realised in 2D”. No idea if that notion needed to be challenged, but I certainly like the outcome!

The video below gives you a better idea of how exactly the installations are set up.

Victor Enrich uses CAD software to remodel buildings into obscure shapes. I find the result is pretty amazing – and while I know next to nothing about the theoretical framework in which he places his work, I just think the zip-up building pictured above is a great idea! You can check out many of his designs on his website.
(All pictures via victorenrich.com)

It would be really easy to make fun of this as the ultimate product for fashion victims, or to point out the irony inherent in the fact that a leather goods manufacturer celebrates its 160th anniversary by releasing a limited edition plastic chair. But if I’m being honest I’d just quite like to have one of these. Or maybe two… And as Mini has proven consistently over the past 50 years or so, putting racing stripes on things immediately improves them by at least 27%. Don’t ask me how I came up with that figure.